Tag: Compete

I am trying something a little different this week. We recorded a short video for this week’s message. Please take the two plus minutes that encompasses this video and think about what it means to Compete.

Thank you for all of the interest and positive feedback of A Competitor’s Heart. The messages I have received regarding this book reinforce the message of living and competing from the heart that is being carried throughout the TRIBE of Competitors.

This is the first issue in the 3rd year of the Community of Competitors Newsletter. In this week’s video we focus on the TRIBE that has been built over the last two years.

Living with the Heart of a Competitor is not based on a set of mental skills or a specific strategy, living with the Heart of a Competitor is the understanding that everything we do comes from our Heart. The Heart is the center of a physical, intellectual, and most importantly spiritual life.

It is easy to understand the Heart as the center of the physical body. We can understand how it pumps blood throughout our body, delivering oxygen to our working muscles, while at the same time pulling wastes, by-products of pushing ourselves to the limit away from our body.

The heart is also the center for intellectual and spiritual life. Our heart is connected to our thinking, our intellectual center, and the Holy Bible connects these functions of the mind with the Heart in numerous verses, including Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” This Heart is at the center of everything we do and are. Our competitive lives are the result of our Heart of a Competitor, “As the water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” (Proverbs 27:19) Thus, if we are to BE competitors, it must come from our heart to give all that is possible to yourself and your passion.

Look outside these biblical references and review the links with Heart in our language. The word “courage” has roots that connect it with the Heart. Courage comes from same root as French word couer, which means Heart. Our courage in competition comes from our Heart.

We then add the Competition with the Heart to form the Heart of a Competitor. Let’s delve a little deeper into the word “Competition.” Everything in life is a competition, however, competitors typically look to compete against others, rather than with others. True competition rests squarely with ourselves. The Latin Root of COMPETE, com petire means “to seek together.” While many people view competition as a struggle, a push and pull with an opponent, at its’ heart, competition is not a struggle it is a dance. In this dance, we are working together with our opponent to seek together a performance that allows both of us to perform at our best.

This is the Heart of a Competitor and when we live with the Heart of a Competitor, our life will reflect this. We will openly seek opportunities to work together to become better than we were the day before.

A mess can become a message. A few weeks ago, I wrote about my mess as a coach becoming my message. I had gone through a difficult coaching experience, wherein I was focused on comparing myself and the program I was running to everyone else; when true competition is competing against yourself to do the best that you can. This experience has led me to the message that is the Heart of a Competitor and the program that is nearing completion.

Over the past year and a half I have had the opportunity to work with athletes and coaches in a variety of sports and it has taken me to a number of different athletic contests. In these athletic contests, the competitive arena, I love to watch the relationship between competitor and coach. The title of coach comes with great responsibility, a responsibility to connect with an athlete and translate your knowledge to their performance. There are a variety of ways to do this, but there is only one time to do it, in practice.

Practice is the coach’s Super Bowl, while the competition should be the competitor’s Super Bowl. The young competitor’s we work with always feel they are being evaluated because they are being recorded and evaluated in competitive situations. Great coaches do record and evaluate game situations, but they use it to teach in practice, not in the middle of a competition.

Using this video in the middle of a competition is a recipe for “Paralysis by Analysis.” Competitive greatness for an athlete is a mind and body connection to perform during competition, leaving the analyzing and judging for a later time. Competitive greatness is not enhanced by being shown where your feet or hands are located at during a movement; competitive greatness is about being connected and focused on performing at your peak.

For all of the competitors that read this message, continue to focus on competing and giving your best effort in the present moment during competitions. Then during practice be focused and connected to your coach and the lessons each of you have learned from competition.

For the coaches that read this message, treat practice like your Super Bowl and connect with and teach your athletes then, allow them to demonstrate their progress and COMPETE in the competition.